UN says 60000 have fled South Sudan since latest fighting

In July, the 2015 peace agreement in South Sudan between fighters loyal to President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar collapsed, with three days of renewed fighting during which more than 300 people were killed.

South Sudanese refugees gather at a UNHCR collection centre on the South Sudan border in Egelo, Uganda. “Kenya has reported the arrival of 1,000 refugees in the same period, while 7,000 have fled to Sudan”, UNHCR said in a statement.

The figure brings the number of South Sudanese to have fled to neighboring countries to almost 900,000 since December 2013.

People fleeing South Sudan have reported being turned back by armed groups on the road to Uganda.

More than 85 per cent of the refugees arriving in Uganda are women and children under the age of eighteen.

Inside South Sudan, where aid agencies are concerned about inability to provide urgent help to needy populations, the generalized collapse in the protection of civilians is also affecting numerous 250,000 refugees, mainly from Sudan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Several of the refugees pouring into Kenya and Uganda, have been arriving with children who are said to be severely malnourished as a result of the humanitarian crisis.

With over 2.6 million of its citizens forcibly displaced, the world’s youngest nation now ranks among the countries with the highest levels of conflict-induced population displacement globally.

Meanwhile, the South Sudanese government threatened to pull out of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Tuesday. Akol was one of two ministers in the unity government that was part of neither Kiir’s SPLM nor Machar’s opposition, known as the SPLM-In-Opposition (SPLM-IO).

He added: “South Sudan voluntarily applied for membership and it is free to move out anytime if it so decides”. Amid renewed violence, the UN Security Council (UNSC) extended the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in South Sudan until August 12.

“If IGAD can talk of military intervention in South Sudan, then what are they after?”

IGAD members have played different roles in South Sudan since civil war broke out in December 2013.

Nothing has been heard from Machar since and Kiir replaced him as vice president. Ethiopia and Kenya have also been swayed by their own interests.